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Radio Executives Put Hate Mongers on Air

Russell Baker has the wrong culprit when he scolds the American people for the streams of venom that foul the air on ''talk radio'' (''I Hear America Snarling,'' column, Aug. 9). No doubt, the same snarling, in proportion to the population, was there in Walt Whitman's 19th-century America. What was lacking was the technology to broadcast it and the American business community's ability to exploit it.

Radio network executives know that a street corner fist fight will attract a crowd. In the contest to capture audience, they hire ''hosts'' to provoke and often participate in these fist fights of the air.

The abrasive and contentious personalities they tend to hire encourage listeners to give voice to prejudices, unabashed racism, irrational fury or, as Mr. Baker puts it, the desire to ''cut off heads.'' This venom, which was previously visceral or covert, is released and sent out over the airwaves to excite or infect others generally and the new generation in particular.

To whatever extent this snarling out becomes acting out is a consequence of talk radio for which the radio executives must assume some responsibility. GEORGE PURVIN Sea Cliff, L.I., Aug. 19, 1989

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A version of this letter appears in print on September 9, 1989, on Page 1001022 of the National edition with the headline: Radio Executives Put Hate Mongers on Air. Today's Paper|Subscribe